Yay Bikes! Journeys recount howYay Bikes! is transforming lives and communities, from the perspective of those we’ve impacted. In this installment, we hear from Nik Olah about how the Yay Bikes! community has rallied around him during his time of need.

The man, the myth, the legend: Nik Olah. Photo: Ray George

Biking, for me, is fundamentally a social experience. I ride with people to soak up life with them. It’s the time we’ve spent just being together, talking or silently taking in the scenery, that has forged some of the friendships I’ve relied on most since my cancer diagnosis. 

— Nik Olah

COMING UNDONE: ‘Humbling’ doesn’t even come close to capturing the outpouring of love I’ve received from this community over the past 12 months.”

Shortly after the Year of Yay! ride in July 2017, Nik Olah walked from his apartment in Downtown Columbus to the emergency room at Grant Hospital. Though he had trouble convincing the doctors there of it, he knew something wasn't right. He knew this because after the Year of Yay! ride someone had offered to drive him home from Whole Foods Market at Easton and, too tired to ride the 10 extra miles, he accepted. This was weird. He had just returned from an epic bicycle camping trip through Glacier National Park, so 10 miles? Pshaw! He finally convinced the doctors to run some tests, and one week later he got the devastating diagnosis: stage IV pancreatic cancer. Nik would be lucky to live another few months.

Nik, shortly before his cancer diagnosis.

His world fell apart at that point, as anyone's would. Suddenly the guy known to everyone in the Yay Bikes! community as "the ultimate sweep"—the one who'd stay behind to ride with anyone who was struggling—found himself in need of the support he'd offered to so many for so long. And indeed, in the months following his diagnosis, it was often his bicycle community that buoyed both his spirits and his health. “People have helped me clean and cook, sat with me as I cried, traveled and ridden with me, joined me at doctor’s visits…I couldn’t ask for better friends,” said Nik, tears in his eyes.

MAKING COLUMBUS HOME: "I came to Columbus for the opportunity to earn more money, but my heart was elsewhere for a long time. I stopped driving back to Toledo every weekend when I finally began going on Yay Bikes! rides."

In 2008, Nik moved to the Columbus area from Toledo, where he’d lived his entire life. With his new, better-paying job, he replaced the bicycle he’d had stolen 10 years before and began riding the paths and parks of Westerville. He attempted a ride with the Westerville Bike Club but…it did not go well; Nik couldn’t keep up with the group. Eventually he decided to move to downtown Columbus, where he met folks who enjoyed the more leisurely, sociable style of riding that suited him. As best as we can figure, Nik found his way to a Year of Yay! ride sometime in 2014. He still didn’t have many friends in Columbus, so he returned to Toledo most weekends. But as he began attending more Yay Bikes! events, and Ray George pulled him into other rides, he started to form a community here. Columbus finally began to feel like home. Along with board games, curling and rum connoisseur-ing, bicycling became his life—he sold his car when he determined it’d be cheaper and easier to live without it, and he has never turned back.

Nik being Nik on a holiday Year of Yay! ride!

BEING YAY BIKES!: "You can do it. There's only Nik (i.e., five) miles left to go*..."

Nik turned out to be the perfect embodiment of Yay Bikes! According to our theory of change, “We facilitate a caring community of cyclists because we believe that changing transportation behaviors is difficult when attempted in isolation.” And Nik’s ability to create meaningful relationships in a very short time is unparalleled. He hangs back with new riders, sharing his knowledge with them, distracting them with conversation, nudging them to just. keep. pedaling. And, with him, they find it within themselves to keep at it, long enough to gain the confidence of someone who’s done something previously unimaginable. They are able to move from fear into a bicycling lifestyle because Nik took the time to support them at a critical juncture on their journey.

(*Nik is known by friends to answer "five" whenever they ask how many miles are left to ride. Because anyone can ride just another five miles!)

Nik, Joel and Kathleen being cheered on during the 2018 Pan-Ohio Hope Ride. Photo: Darrell McGrath

ROLLING ONWARD: "Keep pedaling, find your tribe and locate your joy.”

Recently Nik has been sporting an electric bike, too weak to continue riding the steed he bought 10 years ago upon moving to Columbus. He was able to complete the American Cancer Society’s 2018 Pan Ohio Hope Ride, but realistically there won’t be another; he has accepted comfort care and expects to have passed by the end of the year. But, in typical Nik fashion, he wants his story to be told, and exploited for Good any way possible: "Anything I can do to turn this into a positive, I will gladly do," he says. He wants people know the magic of riding a bike. He wants them to know how profoundly their mental and physical health can be impacted by riding a bike. Most of all, he wants people to know that riding bikes is a way to know and be known, to develop “bike friends” that become “real friends” who will be there for you when things get rough.

Yay Bikes! is forever grateful to Nik for his loving, joyful, generous presence. We will always treasure the many gifts he has bestowed on our community.

Loving tributes to our friend:

Craig Clark

“I have always enjoyed not just riding with, but spending time with the bike riding, kilt wearing, rum aficionado Nik Olah. Nik is a great story teller of events and adventures he has been a part of. I always enjoy hearing stories of GenCon, The Safehouse, and travel. I am glad that we got to share numerous experiences over the last couple of years: riding in Chicago, West Virginia, and Montana as well as rides around Columbus. One of the things that I really admire in Nik is that he is very thoughtful of others. Always considering and thinking about other people, whether it be hanging back on a ride so that no one rides alone or inviting friends to join him on a crazy adventure.”

KATHLEEN KOECHLIN

“Nik is definitely the ultimate sweep! He is so patient and so kind when it comes to Yay Bikes! rides! He will stay with the last person, whether they decide to finish or to stop (in which case he will wait with them until their ride comes). He is willing to give up his ride to ensure that everyone is taken care of and has a good experience. I am not that selfless, so he is someone I really look up to. Nik is so optomistic! His positive attitude around all that life has thrown his way just amazes me!”

Joel Spokas

“Soon after moving back to Central Ohio, I discovered Yay Bikes and quickly learned that cyclists didn’t always wear spandex. Some wore jeans, dresses or, like Nik, kilts. Nik was usually the Sweep and made sure everyone made it back safely. He taught me that being a Sweep isn’t just about knowing the route or being a good wrench. You also need to make the most novice cyclist comfortable, and he excels at this. He always has a story to share, be it an insight on the law or rum or music or games or strategy—whatever it is that connects. His actions remind me that leading isn’t about being up front. That by meeting people where they are, seeing the humanity in each of us, without judgement and without bias, we ride together.”

Jeff Gove

“Nik Olah is an inspiration to me to appreciate every day and every one I come into contact with, be present with them and value them as unique individuals who make the world better because of them being in it.”

Kathleen O'Dowd

Nik is The Ultimate Sweep! He has never dropped me—ever! On my very first Century ride he chatted away, about everything and nothing, to carry me the last 15 miles, to mile 100! I don’t think I would have made it (with a smile) without him!

DARRELL MCGRATH

“When I moved to Columbus, I only knew one person. I don’t make friends easily, so that’s how it stayed for quite a while. But after years of exploring the area alone, I finally decided to join a bicycling group (Yay Bikes!) with hopes of meeting other people. My first time out was a little rocky. So I skipped their next ride. Then I decided to give it another try. There was this one guy in the back who seemed friendly. We chatted a bit. That evening I told my partner, “I did talk to this one guy. I guess I’ll go again next month.” And that guy was there again, in the back, keeping an eye out for others, and generously taking time to explain who we were and what we were doing to the drivers and pedestrians we rode by. I hung back with him because it felt like a safe place to be. Over the next few months, I would show up, look around, and think, “Okay...that guy is here. I guess I’ll stick around. Maybe I’ll try to meet other people today...but at least I can talk to him. It will be a good ride.” After about a year, I actually made some friends. Like I said, I don’t make friends easily. But now I feel like I have many. I feel like Columbus is my home. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. This is exactly where I want to be, and these are the people I want to spend time with. But I wouldn’t have tried over and over and over again to get beyond my natural reluctance to open up to strangers if I hadn’t felt safe and comfortable because of that guy near the back of the pack. Well, right now that guy needs me and the rest of his friends to hang back. I don’t know if he would have asked for it, but he never needed to—we all consider it an honor. Cancer sucks more than any hill, than any headwind, than any thunderstorm. But we can look after one another. We can generously offer our time. We can provide a safe place. We all have to get up that hill under our own power, but we never have to do it alone.”

Rahel Babb

“Since the moment I first met Nik he's always been there helping out, encouraging me, smiling and generally just being a good friend. Over the course of several years and countless miles ridden together, my family and I have gotten to know him better and our bond of friendship has grown deeper as a result. Nik always finds a way to help out, be it volunteering to be a sweep on a ride, house/dog sitting for us when we are on vacation or just being here when I need some company. It means the world to me to count him among my friends. He is truly one of a kind!”

Jennifer Reichert

I have known Nik my entire adult life, which he has profoundly influenced for the better. I met him in the early 1990s, when we hung around the University of Toledo's radio station, WXUT, in the wee hours of the morning gleefully playing found noises and audio samples. He taught me about this new thing called the Internet and how to use it. He was also the first vegan I ever met, and he patiently explained what that meant. Through the years, Nik's creative, gently iconoclastic, playful, patient spirit helped me see and engage the world with joy and compassion. We discovered a shared love of hockey, and this photo was taken when my Capitals were visiting Columbus in 2011. It has been an honor to be able to call Nik a friend.